Apple sells 1.7 million iPhone 4s in first three days

Apple blew past its previous initial sales record for the iPhone, notching 1.7 million units sold for the iPhone 4 in its first three days.

The previous models, the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G, sold 1 million units over their first three days. The original iPhone took 74 days to get to 1 million in sales.

The iPhone 4, billed as a major update for the platform, generated huge lines Thursday when it went on sale and sold out in many locations. The 1.7 million record is through the end of Saturday.

Pre-orders on June 15, the first day of availability, hit 600,000, ten times the number of day one pre-orders for the iPhone 3GS.

Initial pre-orders were so strong, they brought down the servers for Apple and AT&T. AT&T also announced it would not be selling iPhone 4s to walk-up customers on the first day of sales and would only service pre-order customers. AT&T will begin selling iPhone 4s to walk-up customers who have not pre-ordered starting tomorrow.

“This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.”

This tops even some of the more optimistic estimates of some analysts. Longtime Apple watcher Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, estimated Friday that Apple would sell between 1 to 1.5 million iPhones over the first weekend.

Apple probably could have sold many more units if supplies weren’t constrained. With international distribution expanding to 87 countries by September, the iPhone 4 will likely remain a strong seller for the coming months and could be in short supply for some time.